Brian Wick

This afternoon I replaced the Wick in our Kerosene heater. It wasn’t an easy job and by the time it was over I had a headache because of the smell of Kerosene and the instructions I was trying to follow.

We realized we needed the Wick replaced because of the difficulty of lighting the heater last week and now that it’s turning cold again we’d like to know our heat source works.

After the wrestling match was over, with no clear victor to declare I filled the heater with Kerosene and set it on the porch for the required hour to soak up the new fuel and, hopefully, give some much needed warmth to our home.

As I attempted to do this chore which I’d never done before I thought about how we become burnout, at the end of our candles which too often burn at both ends, and wonder how we’ll keep the fires of our spirits and lives lit in a world that seems intent on extinguishing them.

Wisdom tells us that it requires a willingness to not give up, a desire to not be a heartless, heatless, being. It’s time consuming, requires a relentless quest of not having that which makes us human, extinguished.